Hose Size

How big is the hose size for the antifreeze hose running into the heater core? My thunderbird is an 86 and the hose has a nice little hole in it. Thanks.

If you have even the slightest amount of slack in the hose, slice off a tiny segment off the end and take this in to the parts store. If you don't have enough slack for this (which I very seriously doubt), disconnect the blown hose and press the open hose up against a piece of clean white paper. If there isn't enough rust or corrosion of the hose to make a circular mark on the paper, trace the cirumference with a pen or pencil. Take that paper into the auto parts store. As far as I've seen, there aren't too many different sizes of heater hose. Also, don't buy the pre-molded kind if you don't have to - it's a total rip off. Tell the auto parts guys you want some off the spool.

Just thought about something - you're heater hose probably has a compression fitting so you can't disconnect it. Drive your bird to the parts store if possible and get one of them to come and check it out and tell you the size.

When you go to replace it, just use some wire cutters to rip that fitting off. Use some regular screw-down hose clamps to tighten it this time. I don't know if this is a no-no, but I did that over a year ago when replacing my heater hose and have had no problems at all from the connection.